Saturday, November 29, 2008

Caramel Cake

Lucky us - we got to bake this doozie in Sara's parents' Big Sur kitchen, which looks out right onto the Pacific Ocean. What a wonderful break from law school - a long-weekend trip to celebrate our friend Rachel's birthday and caramel cake!

Admittedly, we were both a little horrified by the quantity of sugar this recipe called for. But we gave it a go whole-heartedly, albeit wearing protection during the hot splatter moment the recipe warned us about.

The caramel it produced, however, was beautiful.

As usual, this recipe entailed its share of frightening moments - this time, the batter took on a strange grainy quality as we added the components per the recipe's instructions.

Our fears were not realized, however, as the cake that emerged from the oven was perfect. Unlike our hazlenut cake from the summer, it didn't collapse at all! The frosting was a breeze, and the finished product turned out beautifully (and deliciously).

We did make a valiant attempt at the chewy caramels, as well, but ended up with what turned out to be excelllent caramel sauce for ice cream. Ah well - apparently candy thermometers *are* important. Since we don't have a picture of these, let's close with two pictures of Sara's parents' adorable cats.

Smart idea to use the silicon oven mitts. Consider yourself lucky that you wound up with caramel syrup. At least you can pour it over ice cream. My first attempt resulted in the brick many of the DBs talk about. I even cooked them to a lower temp. (So much for candy thermometers.